After Seattle debacle, USC on rebound for Wash St

In this Sept. 5, 2009, file photo, Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley (7) and coach Pete Carroll shake hands during practice before an NCAA college football game against San Jose in Los Angeles. Carroll is hoping the return of perhaps USC's two most important players will put the Trojans back on track after last week's loss at Washington. Carroll is hopeful Barkley and safety Taylor Mays will be able to play in Saturday night's home game against Washington State. (AP Photo/Lori Shepler, File)
— AP

In this Sept. 5, 2009, file photo, Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley (7) and coach Pete Carroll shake hands during practice before an NCAA college football game against San Jose in Los Angeles. Carroll is hoping the return of perhaps USC's two most important players will put the Trojans back on track after last week's loss at Washington. Carroll is hopeful Barkley and safety Taylor Mays will be able to play in Saturday night's home game against Washington State. (AP Photo/Lori Shepler, File)
/ AP

LOS ANGELES 
After six years around Southern California football, guard Jeff Byers has far too much experience with inexplicable upset losses. He also knows why the Trojans always seem to respond so well to them.

"It all starts and ends with Coach Carroll," said Byers, a sixth-year senior. "He can't control everything that happens on the field on game day, because that's up to us. But he always does a good job of getting us refocused and getting us right back on track."

Pete Carroll's refocusing abilities are about to get a doozy of a test in the next few weeks, starting with the 12th-ranked Trojans' return to the Coliseum against Washington State on Saturday night.

With a 16-13 loss at Washington last week, the Trojans (2-1, 0-1 Pac-10) rolled to the fringe of the national title race and jumped into an early hole in their quest for an eighth straight conference title and BCS bowl berth.

Although the Cougars (1-2, 0-1) are much improved from the inept team that received a 69-0 shellacking from USC in Pullman last year, oddsmakers believe they'll provide not much more than a chance for USC to work on its many offensive flaws before next weekend's showdown with No. 6 California.

The Trojans can't afford to count on any such thing. If they don't want to be the group that ends the school's remarkable streak, an offense that's scored just 31 points in the past two games has got to get better in a hurry.

"It never feels good," Byers said. "You've got an ache in the pit of your stomach, and you remember that feeling for the rest of the year. In fact, that's what motivates you for a long time after that. You still have that feeling, and I know it's driving us this week."

The Trojans have lost just six games since Texas beat them in the Rose on Jan. 4, 2005, ending a 34-game winning streak and denying USC its third straight national title. Five of those losses were major upsets, yet the Trojans still haven't lost back-to-back games since the fourth and fifth games of Carroll's tenure in 2001.

USC spent the week working on the details of execution and timing, but the return of arguably the team's two most important players also should help. Freshman quarterback Matt Barkley is expected to return from a bruised right shoulder to start in place of Aaron Corp, who played unimpressively at Washington, while All-American safety Taylor Mays also is expected back from a right knee injury.

"I feel like if I was out there (last week), maybe I could have set the tempo for our guys and got things going," Mays said. "I don't like to (miss practices or games), because I feel paranoid, like Coach Carroll is going to take my scholarship if I don't play."

Carroll wants the Trojans to regain their balance offensively after passing for just 110 yards against the Huskies. USC has perhaps the nation's best offensive line and a talented fleet of tailbacks, but its mediocre passing attack – which is still missing deep-threat receiver Ronald Johnson, out for another month with a broken collarbone – allows defenses to overload with nine defenders against the run, daring USC to beat them with a pass.